1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique to fill a liquid such as beverages and skin lotions with hydrogen gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, soft drinks and the like formed by filling beverages such as water and teas with hydrogen gas are sold. These aim at reducing active oxygen that is present in a human body by ingesting hydrogen gas filled in a liquid.
It has been clarified that active oxygen is essential for life maintenance, for example, active oxygen plays an important role when it makes ATP (adenosine troposphere) in the citric acid cycle, and active oxygen also assumes a role to eject foreign substances that enter into the body. However, on the other hand, excess active oxygen that has not been used in a reaction in a living body is generally decomposed by an enzyme present in cells, but the excess active oxygen that has not been decomposed damages the cells. As a result, active oxygen causes diseases such as cancers and lifestyle-related diseases, aging and the like. Therefore, it is considered that it is beneficial to health to eject excess active oxygen.
Furthermore, the reasons why hydrogen gas is used for reducing active oxygen are that hydrogen has an extremely small molecular weight and thus is readily absorbed by the body, and that hydrogen is highly safe since only water is generated if hydrogen reacts with active oxygen, and the like.
As mentioned above, the pathological effectiveness of hydrogen water which is considered to have no special harmfulness and lead to prophylaxis of illness and health enhancement was reported in many academic journals and the like such as Non Patent Literatures 1 to 10, and is too numerous to comprehensively list here.
As mentioned above, ingestion of hydrogen gas exerts useful effects such as prophylaxis of illness and health enhancement, whereas it is difficult to dissolve hydrogen gas in a liquid and maintain the dissolved hydrogen therein at a high amount. For example, in the case when water filled with hydrogen gas is stored in a plastic container such as a PET (polyethylene telephthalate) bottle, most of the hydrogen escapes within several days even under a sealed state, and a high efficacy cannot be obtained even when this water is ingested.
In this regard, Patent Literature 1 suggests a method for maintaining the amount of dissolved hydrogen by enclosing a liquid in which hydrogen molecules are dissolved in a liquid container having a flexible exterior material, attaching a pressurizing element to a part or the entirety of the liquid container, and maintaining a state in which the container is pressurized from outside.